Twiggs Goes to School, Wins at San Diego

Strapping Greg Twiggs went from local yokel to local hero thanks to local knowledge.

The former San Diego State golfer shot a 69 Sunday for a 17-under par total of 271 at the Shearson Lehman Hutton Open. The victory was worth $126,000 and an exemption from the tortures of PGA qualifying until 1992.

It was his first tour victory, and it came on the municipal golf course, Torrey Pines South, where his power game matured.

Twiggs won because he knew where to hit the ball off the tee and where to aim his putts on the greens. As a college student he played here three times a week. That’s when he learned the light rough at Torrey Pines is not a problem as long as your ball isn’t behind a tree. He found only 12 fairways the last three days. But he hit 17 greens in regulation Sunday.

Twiggs won because third-round leader Steve Elkington of Australia bogeyed the fourth, fifth and sixth holes en route to a 73. Elkington finished in a four-way tie for second with second-round co-leader Mark Wiebe, last year’s third-round leader Brad Faxon and Mark O’Meara of Escondido.

Twiggs won because playing partner Wiebe missed an 18-inch birdie putt at the 15th hole that gave Twiggs a comfortable three-shot lead with three holes to play.

“I told Mark that was a gimme,” Twiggs said. “I hope he’s still my friend.”

And Twiggs won despite himself. And despite his caddy.

Before this week, Bret Finley, 222, never carried a golf bag. Not even his own. But he is the son of the sister of Twiggs’ wife. And he works cheap.

Still, Twiggs said: “I had to show him how to carry the bag.”

By the time Twiggs got to the last fairway, Finley was holding up just fine and Twiggs had chased the butterflies from his stomach, the distress caused by the snuff he had tucked under his lip.

“I had severe heartburn,” he said. “Because I wouldn’t take it out. . . . I chew and I smoke. . . . I’m slowly but surely trying to do everything wrong that will eventually kill me.”

His friends call him “Twiggy.” It’s a nickname that’s almost as bad as his habits.

Three putts at the par-three 16th hole shrunk his lead over Wiebe to two strokes. And the 240 pounds he drags around on his 6-foot-2 frame were beginning to make him weary.

But a 330-yard drive that split the heart of the fairway at the 499-yard 18th killed everybody else’s chances instead. From there, Twiggs feathered a 178-yard six-iron to the safe part of the green. And from there he three-putted for par and the championship.

Wiebe’s long, downhill putt for eagle on 18 never got close. The four-way split he shared for second place money turned out to be $46,200.

In four previous years on the PGA tour, Twiggs won a total of $98,520, more than $27,000 less than he won Sunday. His previous best finish in a tour event was a tie for third at the 1985 Greater Milwaukee Open. The most he had ever made in one year was $41,418 in 1986.

Twiggs arrived in San Diego fresh from a discouraging Hawaiian Open, where he trailed the leaders by nine strokes before he hit his first drive. He eventually missed the cut.

But after 54 holes here he cut Elkington’s lead to two shots on the strength of a third-round 64. When he sank an eight-footer for birdie on No. 2 he had cut Elkington’s lead in half.

Twiggs answered a three-putt bogey on the third hole with a drive, a nine-iron and a 12-foot birdie putt on the 447-yard fourth. Suddenly he owned a share of the lead he would never lose.

Birdies at 10, 13 and 14 were important. But his round turned on the 10-foot par-saving putt from the fringe he dropped on the 12th. His lead over Wiebe at the time was one.

This one is the standard rags-to-riches stuff. Two and a half months ago Twiggs was the 52nd and last man to survive the 108-hole PGA qualifying school in Palm Springs.

That meant he would be 52nd on the priority list of players allowed into tour events once the 126 exempt players took their spots in the field. The only reason there was a spot open for Twiggs at San Diego was because so many pros skipped this tournament to prepare for next week’s $1.3 million Doral Ryder Open at Florida. The total purse in this tournament was $700,000.

Twiggs insisted the money won’t change his life. “But it’s a little easier to write checks for bills when you don’t have to call up your accountant and say, ‘What’s in there?’ ”

Golf Notes

Mark O’Meara and Robert Wrenn tied for the low round of the day at 66. They will each receive a zero coupon Treasury certificate, worth $25,000 at maturity in 2099 from the tournament sponsor. O’Meara’s round came despite jamming a hand Saturday night. The injury occurred when O’Meara slipped on the grass while walking to the lawn mower in his back yard where he was about to cut the grass on his 3,000 square foot putting green. . . . The Shearson Lehman Hutton Open team of Ray Barr Jr., Steve Pate, Sam Randolph and Brad Faxon finished a combined 48-under par in the Nabisco team standings. Each PGA tournament has a four-man team. The leaders in the team standings at the end of the season win money for local charities. The SLHO team moved from 17th to 10th in the standings thanks to its finish this week.

What happened to Frank Conner, Mark Lye and David Peoples, co-leaders after the first round? Conner followed his opening 65 with 74, 74, 76 for a one-over par 289 good for 72nd place and $1,372. Only four golfers finished behind Conner. One was local amateur Steve Haase and one was Tom Purtzer, who withdrew after three rounds. Lye shot 70-74-73 the last three days for a six-under total of 282, $2,252.25 and a share of 42nd. Peoples went 72-71-70 for 278, $7,147.00 and a share of 19th. . . . The last San Diego area golfer to win this tournament was Billy Casper. . . . Greg Twiggs went to San Diego State but now lives in Palm Springs and plays out of Rancho Mirage.